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DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS 
AT THIS CKISIS. 



A SPEECH of Hon. CHARLES SUMNER, delivered at 

the Ilepublicau Convention at Worcester, Sept. 7, l^^-i. 



Mr. President and Fellow Citizens of Massachusetts: After months of anxious, 
constant service in another place, away /rom Massachusetts, I am permitted a^ain 
to stand among you, my fellow citizens, and to draw satisfaction and strength from 
your generous presence. [Applause.] Life is full of changes and contrasts. 
From slave soil I have come to free soil. [Applause.] From the tainted breath 
of Slavery I have passed to this bracing air of Freedom. [Applause.] And the 
heated antagonism of debate, shooting forth its fiery cinders, is changed into this 
brimming, o'erfiowing welcome, where I seem to lean on the great heart of our 
beloved Commonwealth, as it palpitates audibly in this crowded assembly. [Loud 
and long applause.] 

Let me say at once, frankly and sincerely, that I have not come here to receive 
applause or to give occasion for any tokens of public regard ; but simply to unite 
with my fellow citizens in new vows of duty. [Applause.] And yet I would not 
be thought insensible to the good will now swelling from so many honest bosoms. 
It touches me more than I can tell. 

During the late session of Congress, an eminent supporter of the Nebraska Bill 
said to me, with great animation, in language which I give with some precision, that 
you may appreciate the style as well as the sentiment : " I would not go through all 
that you do 07i this nigger question, for all the offices and honors of the country." 
To which I naturally and promptly replied : " Nor would I for all the otfices and 
honors of the country." [Laughter and long applause.] Not in these things can 
be found the true inducements to this warfare. For myself, if I have been able to 
do any thing in any respect not unworthy of you, it is because I thought rather of 
those commanding duties which are above office and honor. [Cries of good, good, 
and loud applause.] 

And now, on the eve of an important election in this State, we have assembled to 
take counsel together, in order to determine in what way best to perform those du- 
ties which we owe to our common country. We are to choose eleven Representatives 
in Congress ; also Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and members of the Legislature, 
which last will choose a Senator of the United States, to uphold, for five years ensu- 
ing, the principles and honor of Massachusetts. If in these elections you were to be 
governed merely by partialities or prejudices, whether personal or political, or mere- 
ly by the e.xactions of party, I should have nothing to say on this occasion, except 
to dismiss you to your ignoble work. [That is it, good, good.] But I assume that 
you are ready to renounce these influences and press forward with a single regard 
to those duties which are now incumbent upon us in National alfairs, and also in 
State affairs. 

And here two questions occur which absorb all others. First^ what are our polit* 






ical duties here in Massachusetts at the present time ? and secondly, how, and by 
what agency shall they be performed ? What, and how ? These are the two ques- 
tions of whicli I shall briefly speak, in their order, attempting no elaborate discussion, 
but simply aiming to state the case so that it may be intelligible to all who hear me. 

I. And first, what arc our duties here in Massachusetts, at the present lime ? In 
unfoldinf these I need not dwell on the wrong and shame of Slavery, or on the char- 
acter of the Slave Power — that Oligarchy of slaveholders — which now rules the 
republic. These you understand. And yet there are two outrages fresh in your 
recollection, which I must not f lil to expose, as natural manifestations of Slavery and 
the Slave Power. One is the repeal of the prohibition of slaveiy in the vast Mis- 
souri Territory, now known as Kansas and Nebraska, contrary to time-honored 
compact and plighted faith. The other is the seizure of Anthony Burns, on the free 
soil of Massachusetts, and his surrender, without judge or jury, to a Slave Hunter 
from Virginia, to be thrust back into perpetual slavery. [Shame ! shame !] These 
outrages cry aloud to Heaven, and to the people of Massachusetts. [Sensation.] 
Their intrinsic wickedness is enhanced by the way in which they were accomplished. 
()f the first, I know something from personal observation ; of the latter, 1 am in- 
formed only by public report. 

It is characteristic of the Slave Power never to stick at any means supposed to bo 
needful in carrying forward its plans ; but never, on any occasion, were its assump- 
tions so barefaced and tyrannical as in the passage of the Nebraska Bill. 

This bill was precipitated upon Congress without one word of public recommenda- 
tion from the President, without notice or discussion in any newspaper, and without 
a single petition from the people. It was urged by different advocates, on two prin- 
cipal arguments, so opposite and inconsistent, as to slap each other in the face. 
[Laughter.] One being that, by the repeal of the prohibition, the territory would 
be absolutely open to the entry of slaveholders with their slaves; and the other being 
that the people there would be left to determine whether slaveholders should enter 
with their slaves. With some, the apology was the alleged rights of slaveholders ; 
with others, it was the alleged ,rights of the people. With some, it was openly the 
extension of slavery ; and with others, openly the establishment of freedom, under 
the guise of " popular sovereignty." Of course the measure, thus upheld in defi- 
ance of reason, was carried through Congress, in defiance of all the securities of 
legislation. 

It was carried, ytrs/!, by whipping into its support, through executive influence and 
patronage, men who acted against their own declared judgment, and the known will 
of their constituents; secondly, hy foisting out o^ place, both in the Senate and 
House of Representatives, important business, long pending, and usurping its room ; 
thirdly, by trampling under foot the rules of the House of Representatives, always 
before the safeguard of the minority ; and fourthly, by driving it to a close during 
the present Congress, so that it might not be arrested by the indignant voice of the 
people. Such are some of the means by which the Nebraska Bill was carried. If 
the clear will of the people had not been disregarded, it could not have passed. If 
the Government had not nefariously interposed its influence, it could not have passed. 
If it had been left to its natural place in the order of business, it could not have 
passed. If the rules of the House and the rights of the minority had not been 
violated, it could not have passed. If it had been allowed to go over to another Con- 
gress, when the people might be heard, it would have been ended — all ended. 

Contemporaneously with the final triumph of this outrage — on the very night of 
the passage of the Nebraska Bill at Washington — another scene, beginning a dismal 
tragedy, was enacted at Boston. In those streets where he had walked as a Freeman, 
Anthony Burns was seized as a Slave — under the base pretext that he was a criminal 
— imprisoned in the court house, which was turned for the time into a fortress and 
barracoon — guarded by heartless hirelings, whose chief idea of liberty was the license 
to do wrong — [loud applause and cries of " that's it ! " " that's it ! " &:c.] — escorted 
by intrusive soldiers of the United States — watched by a prostituteti nJlitia — and finally 
giv(;n up to a Slave Hunter by the decree of a petty magistrate, who did not hesitate 
to take upon his soul the awful responsibility of dooming a fellow-man, in whom he 
could find no fault, to a fate, worse than death. How all this was accomjilished, I 
nee 1 not minutely relate. Suflice it to say, that in doing this deed of woe and shame, 
the liberties of all our citizens, ^l^fi'-AgrfV^ as black, were put in jeopardy — the 

Peabody In3t.,Balto« 

' ". Jao. -28 ■ 



• -) Mayor of Boston was converted to a tool — [applause] — the Governor of the Coni- 
"*"', nionwealth to a cipher — [long continued applause] — the laws, the precious senti- 
/^^ rnents, the religion, the pride and glory of Massachusetts were trampled in the dust, 
V and you and I and all of us fell down while the Slave Power flourished over us. 

[Shame, shame, and applause.] 
>^' These things, in themselves are bad — very bad ; but they are worse when regard- 
'"'^ed as the natural emanations of the Oligarchy which now sways the country. And 
N'it is this Oligarchy which, at every political hazard, we must oppose. Already its 
schemes of new aggrandizement are displayed. With a Avatchfulncss that never 
sleeps, and an activity that never tires — with as many eyes as Argus, and as many 
arms as Briareus — the Slave Power asserts its perpetual supremacy ; now threaten- 
ing to wrest Cuba from Spain, by violent purchase or more violent war ; now han- 
kering for another slice of Mexico, in order to give new scope to slavery ; now 
j)roposing once more to open the hideous, heaven-defying slave-trade, and thus to 
replenish its shambles with human flesh ; and now by the lips of an eminent Senator 
asserting an audacious claim to the whole group of the West Indies, whether held 
by Holland, Spain, France or England, as " our Southern Islands," while it assails 
the independence of Hayti, and stretches its treacherous ambition even to the distant 
Valley of the Amazon. 

In maintaining its power, it has applied a new test for ofTice, very different from 
that of Jefferson — " Is he honest.^ is he capable? is he faithful to the Constitution.'"' 
None of these things are asked, but simply, " Is he faithful to Slavery ? " [Cries of 
" That's a fact."] With arrogant ostracism it excludes from every ofBce all who can- 
not respond to this test. So complete and irrational has this tyranny become, that, 
at this moment, while I now speak, could Washington, Jeflerson or Franklin, once 
more descend upon the earth and mingle in its affairs to bless it with their wisdom, 
not one of them, with his recorded opinions on Slavery, could receive a nomination 
for the Presidency, from a National Convention of either of the great political 
parties, nor, stranger still, could he be confirmed by the Senate for any political 
function under the government. Had this test prevailed in earlier days, Washington 
could not have been made Commander-in-Chief of the American army ; Jeflerson 
could not have taken his place on the Committee to draft the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence ; and Franklin could not have been sent to France with the commission of 
the infant republic, to secure the invaluable alliance of that powerful kingdom. 

In view of these things, our duties are manifest. First and foremost, the Slave 
Power itself must be overthrown. Lord Chatham once exclaimed, in stirring 
language, that the time had been wdien he was content to bring France to 
her knees ; now he would not stop till he had laid her on her back. Nor 
can we be content with less in our warfare. We must not stop till we 
have laid the Slave Power on its back. [Prolonged cheers.] And, fellow citi- 
zens, permit me to say, not till then will the Free States be absolved from all politi- 
cal responsibility for Slavery, and relieved from that corrupt spirit of compromise 
which now debases, at once, their politics and their religion ; nor till then will there 
be any repose for the country. [Immense cheering.] Indemnity for the past, and 
security for the future, must be our watchwords. [Applause.] But these can be 
obtained only when Slavery is dispossessed of its present vantage-ground, by driving 
it back exclusively within the limits of the States, and putting the National Govern- 
ment every where within its constitutional sphere, openly, actively and perpetually, 
on the side of Freedom. The consequences of this change of policy would be of 
incalculable and far-reaching beneficence. Not only would Freedom become na- 
tional and Slavery sectional, as was intended by our Fathers ; but the National 
Government would become the mighty instrument and spokesman of Freedom, as 
it is now the mighty instrument and spokesman of Slavery. Its power, its treasury, 
its patronage, would all be turned, in harmony with the Constitution, to promote 
Freedom. The Committees of Congress, where Slavery now rules. Congress itself, 
and the Cabinet also, would all be organized for Freedom. The hypocritical dis- 
guise or renunciation of Anti-Slavery sentiment would cease to be necessary for the 
sake of polhical preferment ; and the slave-holding Oligarchy, banished from the 
National Government, and despoiled of its ill-gotten political consequence, without 
ability to punish or reward, would cease to be feared, either at the North or the 
South, until at last the citizens of the Slave States, of whom a large portion have no 



interest in Slavery, would demand Emancipation ; and the great work would com- 
mence. Such is the obvious course of things. To the overthrow of the Slave 
Power we are thus summoned by a double call, one political and the other philan- 
thropic ; first, to remove an oppressive tyranny from the National Government, and 
secondly, to open the gates of Emancipation in the Slave States. [Loud applause.] 
But while keeping this great purpose in view, we must not forget details. The 
existence of Slavery any where within the national jurisdiction — in the Territories, 
in the District of Columbia, or on the high seas beneath the national flag, is an 
unconstitutional usurpation, which must be opposed. The Fugitive Slave Bill, mon- 
strous in cruelty, as in unconstitutionality, is a usurpation, which must be opposed. 
The admission of new Slave States, from whatsoever quarter, from Texas or Cuba, 
[applause] Utah or New Mexico, must be opposed. And to every scheme of 
Slavery, whether in Cuba, or Mexico, — on the high seas in opening the slave-trade 
— in the West Indies — the Valley of the Amazon, — whether accomplished or merely 
plotted, whether pending or in prospect, we must send forth an everlasting NO ! 
[Long continued applause.] Such is the duty of Massachusetts, without hesitation 
or compromise. 

Thus far I have spoken of our duties in national matters ; Tjut there are other 
duties of pressing importance, here at home, which must not be forgotten or post- 
poned. It is often said that " charity should begin at home." Better say, that 
charity should begin every lokere. But while contending with the Slave Power on 
the broad field of national politics, we must not forget the duty of protecting the 
liberty of all who tread the soil of Massachusetts. [Immense cheering.] Early in 
colonial history, Massachusetts set her face against Slavery. At the head of her 
Bill of Rights she solemnly asserted, that all men are born free and equal ; and in 
the same declaration, surrounded the liberties of all within her borders by the inesti- 
mable rights of trial by jury and Habeas Corpus. But recent events on her own soil 
have taught the necessity of new safeguards to these great principles, — to the end that 
Massachusetts may not be a vassal of South Carolina and Virginia — that the Slave 
Hunter may not range at will among us, and that the liberties of all may not be 
violated with impunity. 

But I am admonished that I must not dwell longer on these things. Suffice it to 
say, that our duties, in National and State affairs, are identical, and may be de- 
scribed by the same formula : In the one case to put the National Government, in 
all its departments, and in the other case the State Government, in all its depart- 
ments, openly, actively and perpetually, on the side of Freedom, [Loud applause.] 
II. Having considered ivhat our duties are, the question now presses upon us, 
how shall they be performed > By what agency, by what instrumentality, or in 
what way .'' 

The most obvious way is by choosing men to represent us in the national govern- 
ment, and also at homo, who shall recognize these duties and be ever loyal to them ; 
[cheers] men who at Washington will not shrink from the conflict with Slavery, and 
also other men, who, at home in Massachusetts will not shrink from the same con- 
flict when the Slave Hunter appears. [Loud applause, and cries of " good," 
" good."] But in the choice of men, we are driven to the organization of parties ; 
and here the question arises, by what form of organization, or by what party, can 
these men be best secured } Surely not by the Democratic party, as at present 
constituted ; [laughter] though if this party were true to its name, pregnant with 
human rights, it would leave little to be desired. In this party there are doubtless 
individuals who are anxious to do all in their power against Slavery ; but, indulge me 
in saying that, so long as they continue members of a party which upholds the Ne- 
braska Bill, they can do very little. [Applause and laughter.] What may we 
expect from the Whig party ? [A voice — Resolutions.] If more may be expected 
from the Whig party than the Democratic party, candor must attribute much of the 
difl'ercnce to the fact that the Whigs are out of power, while the Democrats are in 
ponder. [" That's the talk," and long continued cheers.] If the cases were reversed, 
and the Whigs were in power, as in 1850, I fear that, notwithstanding the ardor of 
individuals, and the Resolutions of Conventions — [great laughter] — made, I fear, 
too often merely to be broken — the party might be brought to sustain an outrage as 
great as the Fugitive Slave Bill. [Laughter and applause.] But without dwelling 
on these things, (to which I allude with diffidence, and, I trust, in no uncharitable 



temper, or partisan spirit,) I desire to say that no party, which calls itself national, 
according to the common acceptance of the word, — which leans upon a slave-holding 
wing, [cheers] or is in combination with slaveholders, — [cheers] can at this time be 
true to Massachusetts. [Great applause.] And the reason is obvious. It can be pre- 
sented so as to cleave the most common understanding. The essential element of such 
a party, whether declared or concealed, is Compromise ; hut our duties require all 
constitutional opposition to Slavery and the Slave Power, without Compromise. 
[" That's it," " good," " good."] It is difficult, then, to see how we can rely upon 
the Whig party. 

To the true-hearted, magnanimous men who are ready to place Freedom above 
Party, and their Country above Politicians, I appeal. [Immense cheering.] Let 
them leave the old parties, and blend in an organization, which, without compro- 
mise, will maintain the good cause surely to the end. Here in Massachusetts a 
large majority of the people concur in sentiment on Slavery ; a large majority 
desire the overthrow of tlie Slave Power. It becomes them not to scatter their 
votes, but to unite in one firm, consistent phalanx, [applause] whose triumph shall 
constitute an epoch of Freedom, not only in this Commonwealth, but throughout the 
land. Such an organization is now presented by this Republican Convention, which, 
according to the resolutions by which it is convoked, is to co-operate with the friends 
of freedom in other States, [Cheers.] As Republicans we go forth to encounter 
the Oligarchs of Slavery. [Great applause.] 

Through this organization we may most certainly secure the election of men, 
who, unseduced and unterrified, will uphold at Washington the principles of Free- 
dom ; and who also here at home, in our own community, by example, influence 
and vote, will help to invigorate Massachusetts. Indeed, I might go further and say, 
that, by no other organization can we reasonably hope to obtain such men, unless in 
rare and exceptional cases. 

Men are but instruments. It will not be enough merely to choose those v.'ho are 
loyal. Other things must be done here at home. In the first place, all the existing 
laws for the protection of human freedom must be rigorously enforced ; [applause, 
and cries of " good,"] and, since these have been found inadequate, new laws for 
this purpose, within the limits of the constitution, must be enacted. Massachusetts 
certainly might do well in following Vermont, which, by a special law, has placed 
the fugitive slave under the safeguard of trial by jury and the writ of habeas corpus. 
But a legislature true to Freedom, will not fail in remedies. [Applause.] A simple 
prohibition, declaring that no person, holding the commission of ftlassachusetts, as a 
Justice of the Peace, or other magistrate, should assume to decide a slave case, or 
to act as counsel of any Slave Hunter, under the penalty of forfeiting his commission, 
would go far to render the existing Slave Act inoperative. [Applause.] There are 
not many, so fond of this base trade, as to continue in it when the Commonwealth 
has thus set upon it a legislative brand. 

But besides more rigorous legislation. Public Opinion must be invoked to step 
forward and throw over the fugitive its protecting panoply. A Slave Hunter will 
then be a by-word and reproach ; and all his instruments, especially every one 
who volunteers in this vileness, without any positive obligation of law, will nat- 
urally be regarded as a part of his pack, and share the ignominy of the chief 
Hunter. [Laughter and cheers.] And now, from authentic example, drawn out 
of, recent history, learn how the Slave Hunter may be palsied by contrition. 
A most successful member of the Italian police, Bolza, whose official duties 
involved his own personal degradation and the loathing of others, has left a rec- 
ord of the acute sense which even such a man retained of his shame. " I 
absolutely forbid my heirs," says this penitent official, " to allow any mark of what- 
ever kind, to be placed over the spot of my burial ; much more any inscription or 
epitaph. I recommend my dearly beloved wife to impress upon my children the 
injunction, that, in soliciting any employment from the Government, they shall ask 
for it elsewhere than in the executive police, and not, unless under extraordinary 
circumstances, to give her consent to the marriage of any of my daughters with a 
member of that service." Thus testifies the Italian instrument of legal wrong. 
Let public opinion here in Massachusetts once put forth its Christian might, and 
every instrument of the Fugitive Act will feel a kindred shame. [Great applause.] 

But it is sometimes gravely urged, that since the Supreme Court of the United 



States has alHrmed the constitutionality of the Fugitive Act, tliere only remains to 
us in all places, whether in public station or as private citizens, the duty of absolute 
submission. Now, without stopping to consider the soundness of their judgment, 
atilrming the constitutionality of this Act, let me say that the Constitution of the 
United States, as I understand it, exacts no such passive obedience. And, in taking 
the oath to support the Constitution, I have sworn to support it as I understand it, 
and not as other men understand it. [Loud applause. When it had subsided it was 
followed by three rousing cheers for Sumner.] 

In adopting this rule, which was first authoritatively enunciated by Andrew Jack- 
son, when, as President of the United States, in the face of the decisions of the 
Supreme Court, he asserted the unconstitutionality of the Bank, I desire to be un- 
derstood as not acting hastily. Let me add, that if it needed other authority in its 
support, it has that also of John Quincy Adams. [Great applause.] And here in- 
dulge me with a reminiscence. Jt so happened that, during the last year in the life 
of this venerable statesman, while he was ill, it was my privilege to sit sometimes by 
his bed-side. On one of these occasions, I put the question to him directly, wheth- 
er, in taking the oath to support the Constitution, he assumed any obligation to return 
a fugitive slave ? to which the " old man eloquent " promptly and earnestly replied 
that, according to his interpretation of the Constitution, he assumed no such obliga- 
tion ; — [applause] — and proceeded to assign certain reasons therefor; and he then 
added, in words calculated to produce a profound impression, that " the best thing 
ever uttered by Andrew Jackson, .was that for which, at the time, he was so much 
abused ; namely, that in swearing to support the Constitution, he swore to support it 
as he understood it, and not as other men understood it." [Immense cheering and 
excitement.] Thus, if any person at this day be disposed to deal sharply with this 
rule, or with myself on account of the support which I now most conscientiously 
give it, let him remember that his thrusts will pierce not only myself, trie humblest 
of its supporters, but also the great fame of Andrew Jackson and of John Quincy 
Adams — patriots both of eminent life and authority, who, though diflering much on 
public questions, and at times rivals and foes, yet concurred in this important princi- 
ple. [Applause.] 

But reason here is in harmony with authority. From the necessity of the case I 
must svVear to support the Constitution, either as I do understand it, or as I do not 
understand it. [Laughter.] But the absurdity of dangling on the latter horn of the 
dilemma, compels me to take the former — and there is a natural end of the argu- 
ment. [Great laughter and cheers.] Is there a person in Congress or out of it, in 
the National Government or State Government, who, when this iuevitable alternative 
is presented to him, wilt venture to say that he swears to support the Constitution as 
he does not understand it ? [Laughter and applause.] The supposition is too pre- 
posterous. But let me ask gentlemen who are disposed to abandon their own under- 
standing of the Constitution, to submit their conscience to the standard of other men, 
by whose understanding do they swear .'' Surely not by that of the President. 
This is not alleged. But by the understanding of the Supreme Court. In other 
words, to this Court, consisting at present of nine persons, is committed a power of 
fastening such interpretation as they see fit upon any part of the Constitution — add- 
ing to it or subtracting from it — or positively varying its requirements — actually 
making and unmaking the Constitution ; and all good citizens must bow to their 
work as of equal authority with the original instrument, ratified by solemn votes of 
the whole people. [Great applause.] If this be so, then the oath to support the 
Constitution of the United States is hardly less ofllensive than the famous " et cetera " 
oath devised by Archbishop Laud, in which the subject swore to certain specified 
things, with an " &c." added. Such an oath I have not taken. [Good, good.] 

For myself, let me say, that I hold judges, and especially the Supreme Court of the 
country, in much respect ; but I am too familiar with the history of judicial proceedings 
to regard them with any superstitious reverence. [Sensation.] Judges are but men ; 
and in all ages have shown a full share of human frailty. Alas ! alas ! the worst 
crimes of history have been perpetrated under their sanction. The blood of mar- 
tyrs and of patriots, crying from the ground, summons them to judgment. It was a 
judicial tribunal which condemned Socrates to drink the fatal hemlock, and which 
pushed the Saviour barefoot over the pavements of Jerusalem, bending beneath his 
cross. It was a judicial tribunal which, against the testimony and entreaties of her 



father, surrendered the fair Virginia as a slave ; which arrested the teachings of the 
great Apostle to the Gentiles, and sent him in bonds from Judea to Rome ; which, 
in the name of the Old Religion, adjudged the saints and fathers of the Christian 
church to death, in all its most dreadful forms; and which, afterwards, in the 
name of the New Religion, enforced the tortures of the Inquisition, amidst tlie 
shrieks and agonies of its victims, while it compelled Galileo to declare, in solemn 
denial of the great truth he had disclosed, that the earth did not move round the sun. 
It was a judicial tribunal which, in France, during the long reign of her monarchs, 
lent itself to be the instrument. of every tyranny, as during the brief reign of terror 
it did not hesitate to stand forth the unpitying accessary of the unpitying guillotine. 
Aye, Sir, it was a judicial tribunal in England, surrounded by all the forms of law, 
which sanctioned every despotic caprice of Henry the Eighth, from the unjust divorce 
of his queen, to the beheading of Sir Thomas More ; which lighted the fires of perse- 
cution that glowed at Oxford and Smithfield, over the cinders of Latimer, Ridley, and 
John Rogers; which, after elaborate argument, upheld the fatal tyranny of ship 
money against the patriot resistance of Hampden ; which, in defiance of justice and 
humanity, sent Sidney and Russell to the block ; which persistently enforced the 
laws of Conformity that our Puritan Fathers persistently refused to obey ; and which 
afterwards, with Jefiries on the bench, crimsoned the pages of English history with 
massacre and murder — even with the blood of innocent woman. And it was a 
judicial tribunal in our country, surrounded by all the forms of law, which hung 
witches at Salem — which afiiirmed the constitutionality of the Stamp Act, while 
it admonished "jurors and the people" to obey — and which now, in our day, has 
lent its sanction to the unutterable atrocity of the Fugitive Slave Bill. [Long con- 
tinued applause, and three cheers for Sumner.] 

The judgments of courts are of binding authority upon inferior tribunals and ex- 
ecutive functionaries, whose virtue does not prompt them to resign office rather than 
aid in the execution of an unjust law. Over all citizens, whether in public or pri- 
vate station, they will naturally exert, as precedents^ a commanding influence ; this, 
I admit ; but no man, who is not lost to self-respect, and ready to abandon that man- 
hood which is shown in the Heaven-directed countenance, will voluntarily aid in 
enforcing a judgment, which, in his conscience, he solemnly believes to be against 
the fundamental law, whether of the Constitution or of God. [Applause.] Not 
lightly, not rashly will he take the grave responsibility of open dissent ; but if the 
occasion requires, he will not hesitate. Pains and penalties may be endured, but 
wrong must not be done. [Cheers.] " I cannot obey, but I can suffer,'" was the 
exclamation of the author of Pilgrim's Progress, when imprisoned for disobedience 
to an earthly statute. Better suffer injustice than do it. Better be even the poor 
Slave, returned to bondage, than the unhappy Commissioner. [Applause and sensa- 
tion.] 

The whole dogma of passive oledience must be rejected ; — in whatever guise it 
may assume, and under whatever alias it may skulk ; whether in the tyrannical 
usurpations of king, parliament, or judicial tribunal ; whether in the exploded theo- 
ries of Sir Robert Filmer, or the rampant assumptions of the partisans of the Fugi- 
tive Slave Bill. The rights of the civil power are limited ; there are things beyond 
its province ; there are matters out of its control : there are cases in wliich the faith- 
ful citizen may say — aye, inust say — " I will not obey." No man now responds to 
the words of Shakspeare, " If a king bid a man be a villain,' he is bound, by the 
indenture of his oath, to be one." Nor will any prudent reasoner, v/ho duly con- 
siders the rights of conscience, claim for any earthly magistrate or tribunal, howso- 
ever styled, a power which, in this age of civilization and liberty, the loftiest mon- 
arch of a Christian throne, wearing on his brow " the round and top of sovereignty" 
dare not assert. 

Fellow Citizens of Massachusetts : — Our own local history is not without encour- 
agement. In early colonial days, the law against witchcraft, now so abhorrent to 
reason and conscience, was regarded as constitutional and' binding, precisely as the 
Fugitive Slave Bill, not less abhorrent to reason and conscience, has been regarded 
as constitutional and binding. The Supreme Court of the Province, with able judo-es, 
whose names are entwined with our history, enforced this law at Salem, by the exe- 
cution of fourteen persons as witches ; precisely as i)etty magistrates, acting under 
the sanction of the Supreme Court of the United States, and also of the Supreme 



Court of Massachusetts, have enforced the Fugitive Act, by the reduction of two 
human beings to Slavery. The clergy of Massachusetts, particularly near Boston, 
and also Harvard College, were for the law. " Witchcraft,'" shouted Cotton Mather, 
from the pulpit, " is the most nefandous high treason" — " a capital crime" — even 
as opposition to the Fugitive Act was denounced as " treason." [Laughter.] 

But tlie law against witchcraft was not triumphant long. The General Court of 
the Province first became penitent, and asked pardon of God for " all the errors of 
his servants and people in the late tragedy." Jurymen united in condemning 
and lamenting the delusion to which they had yielded under the decision of the 
judges, and acknowledged that they had brought the reproach of wrongful blood- 
shed on their native land. Sewall, one of the judges, whose name lives freshly 
in the liberty-loving character of his descendant, (Hon. S. E. Sewall,) [applause,] 
and who had presided at the trials, stood up in his place at church, before the 
congregation, and implored the prayers of the people ''• that the errors he had 
committed might not be visited by the judgments of an avenging God on his 
country, his family, or himself." And now, in a manuscript diary of this de- 
parted judge, may be read, on the margin against the description of these trials, in 
his own handwriting, these words of Latin interjection and sorrow : Va:^ rcE, vce. 
Woe ! woe ! woe ! [Sensation.] 

The parallel between the enforcement of the law against witchcraft, and the 
Fugitive Act is not yet complete. It remains for our Legislature, the successor 
of that original General Court, to lead the penitential march. [Laughter.] In 
the slave cases there have been no jurymen to recant ; [laughter] and it is too 
much, perhaps, to expect any magistrate who has sanctioned the cruelty, to imitate 
the magnanimity of other days by public repentance. But it is not impossible that 
future generations may be permitted to read, in some newly exhumed diary or let- 
ter, by one of these unhappy functionaries, words of woe not unlike those which 
were wrung from the soul of Sewall. [Sensation.] 

And now, fellow citizens, one word in conclusion : Be of good cheer. [" Thai's 
it."] I know well the difficulties and responsibilities of the contest ; but not on this 
account do I bate a jot of heart or hope. [Applause.] At this time, in our coun- 
try, there is little else to tempt into public life an honest man, who wishes, by some- 
thing that he has done, to leave the world better than he found it. There is little 
else which can afford any of those satisfactions which an honest man can covet. 
Nor is there any cause which so surely promises final success. There is nothing 
good — not a breathing of the common wind — which is not on our side. Ours, too, 
are those great allies described by the poet — 

' exultations, agonies, 



And love, and man's unconquerable mind." 

And there are favoring circumstances peculiar to the present moment. By the 
passage of the Nebraska Bill, and the Boston kidnapping case, the tyranny of the 
Slave Power has become unmistakably manifest, while, at the same time, all com- 
promises with Slavery are happily dissolved, so that Freedom now stands face to 
face with its foe. The pulpit, too, released from its ill-omened silence, now thunders 
for Freedom, as in the olden time. [Cheers.] It belongs to Massachusetts — nurse 
of the men and principles which made the earliest Revolution — to vow herself anew 
to her ancient faith, as she lifts herself to the great struggle. Her place now, as of 
old, is in the van, at the head of the battle. [Sensation.] But to sustain this ad- 
vanced position with proper inflexibility, three things are now needed by our beloved 
Commonwealth, in all her departments of government — the same three things, 
which once in Faneuil Hall, I ventured to say were needed by every representative 
of the North at Washington. The first is backhone ; [applause] the second is back- 
bone ; [renewed applause] and the third is BACKBONE. [Long continued cheer- 
ing, and three cheers for " back-bone."] With these, Massachusetts will be respect- 
ed, and felt as a positive force in the National Government, [applause] while at 
home, on her own soil, free at last in reality as in name, [applause] all her people, 
from the islands of Boston to Berkshire hills, and from the sands of Barnstable to 
the northern line, will unite in the cry : W A. ^ 

" Xo slave hunt in our borders — no pirate on our strand ; 
No fetter on the Bay State ; no slave upon her land." 



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